I was both moved and inspired by this beautifully told memoir. The writers do an excellent job of showing how internment was experienced through a child’s eyes (seeing the situation with a childhood naïveté and wonder) while also showing the tremendous difficulty the adults were facing in this reality. The reality is brutal. I have read about Japanese internment before, but I still learned a lot in this book and got emotional throughout it. 

The art is in black and white, which surprised me at first, but as I got into the book, I forgot about color. The art is really nice and fits with the narrative. It really helps shape the emotions and give us a fuller picture.

I really appreciated that we get to see Takei’s youth after the camps and how reliving and remembering his time in internment and understanding his father’s experiences better as he got older launched him into activism. It made me think hard about what I am doing now and how I can better fight to defend and uplift vulnerable communities. 

The book ultimately ended on a note that was both hopeful and oddly patriotic- it leaves us thinking about the resilience of humanity, the strength we have when we stand up together for justice, and the ability we have to enact change.